Month: July 2012

With little suspense, the House is on the verge of approving a Republican plan to extend all federal income tax rates for one year, setting up a political game of chicken with Democrats and the Senate that will play out after the November elections. It will be the exact opposite …

Once again, the Republican Establishment has been sent a strong message by the voters, this time in Texas, as longshot candidate Rafael “Ted” Cruz won an easy win Tuesday over the sitting Lt. Governor of the Lone Star State in a battle for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate. “Tonight’s …

Most of the time the stories that filter out of Capitol Hill are about partisanship and gridlock, like the Senate filibuster Monday against a federal judge nominated by President Obama. But on Tuesday, the House is poised to send President Obama a bill that would streamline the process for Executive …

When Republicans in the U.S. Senate blocked the nomination of an Oklahoma federal judge to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, the story line quickly became tangled in the somewhat messy ways of Congress, as both sides exchanged bitter words over what Senators were supposed to do in an election …

It was late April when the Senate approved a bipartisan Postal Reform bill, designed to help the Postal Service rein in losses that were starting to go over $1 billion each month. The focus then shifted to the House of Representatives. Republicans said they were ready to offer a much …

Lawmakers in Congress know that when they leave Washington, D.C. later this week, they don’t have to be back on the floor of the House and Senate until the week of September 10, as both parties will try to score as many political points as possible in the next few …

Asking for details on a scheduled budget sequester that would take effect in January of 2013, the Senate on Wednesday sent President Obama a bill that requires the federal government to detail where over $100 billion in automatic budget cuts would hit military and domestic spending accounts. After being approved …

As the days tick by for the Congress until a summer break, it’s clear that despite a lot of talk from lawmakers in both sides, there is still a resistance to the idea of Congress paying for things the way most families would deal with their own budget. For example, …

Instead of fixing a clerical error in a bill that would rein in federal regulations, House Republicans made things even messier when they realized the resolution to fix that mistake also had an error in it as well. “Mistakes happen,” said Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), “As silly and embarrassing as …

Sometimes in the Congress there are hearings that are just too good to ignore, and that’s true in the U.S. Senate, where a committee will hold a hearing on legislation that would establish a “uniform national standard for the housing and treatment of egg-laying hens.” While that title may draw …